Wikipedia

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Wikipedia
Wikipedia isotype
Wikipedia logotype.
Main page of the English Wikipedia on July 19, 2020
URLwww.wikipedia.org
CommercialNo[nota 1]
Languages328 languages
TypeOnline encyclopedia
Users> 280 187 active users and
> 103 733 996 registered users[1][2]
RegistrationOptional, unless administrative permission is required.
OwnerWikimedia Foundation
Country United States
Created byJimmy Wales and Larry Sanger
Current statusIn constant development[3]
RevenueDonations through Wikimedia[4]
Alexa rankIncrease 8 (April 2022)
In SpanishYes

Wikipedia is a free,[nota 2] polyglot and collaboratively edited encyclopedia. It is administered by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization whose funding is based on donations. Its more than 59 million articles in 328 languages have been written jointly by volunteers from all over the world,[5] adding up to more than 3,000 million edits, and it allows anyone to join the project[6] to edit them, unless the page is protected against vandalism to avoid problems or disputes.

It was created on January 15, 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger,[7] and it is the largest and most popular reference work on the Internet.[8][9][10] Since its founding, Wikipedia has not only gained in popularity (it is among the 10 most popular websites in the world),[11][12] but its success has also led to the appearance of sister projects: Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikiversity, Wikiquote, Wikinews, Wikisource, Wikispecies and Wikivoyage.

There are three essential characteristics of the Wikipedia project that together define its function on the web. The motto "The free encyclopedia that anyone can edit" explains the three principles:[13]

  • It is an encyclopedia, understood as a medium that allows the compilation, storage and transmission of information in a structured way.
  • It is a wiki, so that, with minor exceptions, it can be edited by anyone.
  • It is open content.

According to its co-founder, Jimmy Wales, the project constitutes "an effort to create and distribute a free encyclopedia, of the highest possible quality, to every person on the planet, in their own language", in order to achieve "a world in which every person on the planet has free access to the sum of all human knowledge".[14] It is developed on the site Wikipedia.org using wiki software (a term originally used for the WikiWikiWeb).

Of the 328 languages in which it is edited, eighteen exceed 1 000 000 articles: English, Cebuano, Swedish, German, French, Dutch, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Waray, Vietnamese, Japanese, Egyptian Arabic, Chinese, Arabic, Portuguese and Ukrainian.[nota 3] A good part of its language editions is available to be used offline, distributed on DVD or other media.[15] Many of its editions have been replicated across the Internet (through "mirrors") and have given rise to derivative encyclopedias (forks) on other websites.[16]

The encyclopedia has received various criticisms. Some have accused it of systemic bias and inconsistencies,[17][18][19] with criticisms of the policy of favoring consensus over credentials in its editorial process.[20][21] Other criticisms have focused on its susceptibility to vandalism and on the appearance of spurious or unverified information,[22] although scholarly studies suggest that vandalism in general is undone promptly.[23][24] Wikipedia has also been criticized for gender bias. Edit-a-thons have been held to encourage women editors and increase coverage of topics related to women.[25]

Wikipedia is one of the 10 most popular websites according to the Alexa ranking in April 2022, and The Economist magazine placed it as the "thirteenth most visited place on the web".[26] Free of advertising, it is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, an American non-profit organization funded mainly through donations.[27]

Etymology

Word element of the Wikipedia corporate brand. It is followed by the slogan "The free encyclopedia".

The word Wikipedia, a proper noun coined by Larry Sanger in early 2001, is the contraction of wiki, a technology for creating collaborative websites, which in turn comes from wikiwiki, 'quick' in Hawaiian,[28] and encyclopedia, in English.[29] This name is pronounced in English as [ˌwɪkɨˈpiːdi.ə] (<phonos file="Es-Wikipedia.ogg">listen</phonos>) or /ˌwɪkiˈpiːdi.ə/ (IPA).

The Spanish Wikipedia, created months later, inherited the name. After a vote held between September and November 2003 by its users, it was decided to keep the same term. In the vote the following names were considered (in order of popularity): Librepedia, Huiquipedia, Uiquipedia, Güiquipedia, Viquipedia, Ñiquipedia, Velozpedia, Limonpedia, Güisquipedia and Velocipedia.[30]

Distribution of editors of the Spanish Wikipedia by country

Countries from which the articles are edited:

Active editors by country
Origin of edits Percentage
Spain 29.7%
Mexico 13.4%
Argentina 11.5%
Colombia 7.4%
Peru 7.3%
Chile 7.0%
Ecuador 1.9%
U.S. 1.8%
Uruguay 1.8%
Costa Rica 1.3%
Others 17.0%
October 2021
Source: Wikimedia Statistics

Notes

  1. ↑ Administered since June 30, 2003 by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization whose funding is based on donations. It was previously administered by the commercial company Bomis.
  2. ↑ Some versions, such as the English Wikipedia, have content considered non-free, such as images or sound files.
  3. ↑ See List of Wikipedias.

References

  1. ↑ Wikimedia. "Wikipedia Statistics: active wikipedians". Retrieved June 22, 2017.
  2. ↑ Wikimedia. "List of Wikipedias". Retrieved August 16, 2022.
  3. ↑ Wikipedia:Intelogencia colectiva en la red (in español). PROFIT. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  4. ↑ "La Wikipedia, ¿en peligro de muerte?" (in español). 20 minutos. Retrieved January 14, 2010.
  5. ↑ Wikimedia Meta-Wiki (2018). "Lista de Wikipedias" (in español). Retrieved September 12, 2018.
  6. ↑ Note: In some parts of the world, access to Wikipedia is or was blocked
  7. ↑ Mike Miliard (March 1, 2008). "Wikipediots: Who Are These Devoted, Even Obsessive Contributors to Wikipedia?". Salt Lake City Weekly. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  8. ↑ "Five-year Traffic Statistics for Wikipedia.org". Alexa Internet. Retrieved July 15, 2008.
  9. ↑ Bill Tancer (May 1, 2007). "Look Who's Using Wikipedia". Time. Retrieved December 1, 2007. The sheer volume of content [...] is partly responsible for the site's dominance as an online reference. When compared to the top 3,200 educational reference sites in the U.S., Wikipedia is #1, capturing 24.3% of all visits to the category Cf. Bill Tancer (Global Manager, Hitwise), "Wikipedia, Search and School Homework", Hitwise: An Experian Company (Blog), March 1, 2007. Retrieved December 18, 2008.
  10. ↑ Alex Woodson (July 8, 2007). "Wikipedia remains go-to site for online news". Reuters. Retrieved December 16, 2007. Online encyclopedia Wikipedia has added about 20 million unique monthly visitors in the past year, making it the top online news and information destination, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.
  11. ↑ "Top 500". Alexa. Archived from the original on May 20, 2009. Retrieved June 26, 2009.
  12. ↑ Wikipedia Now Among Top 10 Most Popular Sites, Chris Sabga, infopackets, February 3, 2007
  13. ↑ "Principio fundacionales" (in español). Fundación Wikimedia. Retrieved January 14, 2010.
  14. ↑ Slashdot (2004). "Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales Responds". Retrieved January 10, 2008.
  15. ↑ "Emmanuel Engelhart, Inventor of Kiwix: the Offline Wikipedia Browser – Wikimedia Blog". Retrieved May 13, 2020.
  16. ↑ "How to set up your own copy of Wikipedia - ExtremeTech". ExtremeTech. January 18, 2012. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
  17. ↑ Robert McHenry (January 16, 2006). "The Faith-Based Encyclopedia". web.archive.org. Retrieved December 3, 2019.
  18. ↑ Next, Education (February 29, 2008). "Wikipedia or Wickedpedia?". Education Next. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
  19. ↑ "Wikipedia—The Dumbing Down of World Knowledge | History News Network". historynewsnetwork.org. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
  20. ↑ Larry Sanger, "Why Wikipedia Must Jettison Its Anti-Elitism". Archived from the original on March 31, 2009. Retrieved March 25, 2007., Kuro5hin, December 31, 2004.
  21. ↑ Wikipedia:Consensus.
  22. ↑ Ahrens, Frank (July 9, 2006). "Death by Wikipedia: The Kenneth Lay Chronicles". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 1, 2006.
  23. ↑ Viégas, Wattenberg & Dave 2004, pp. 575–582.
  24. ↑ Priedhorsky et al. 2007, p. 10.
  25. ↑ "Opinion: This is why I've written 500 biographies of female scientists on Wikipedia". The Independent. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
  26. ↑ "wikipedia.org Competitive Analysis, Marketing Mix and Traffic - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved 2021-01-15.
  27. ↑ "Happy Birthday, Wikipedia". The Economist. 2021-01-09. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2021-01-15.
  28. ↑ English to Hawaiian translator: enter the term "fast" or "quick" to check its translation.
  29. ↑ "enciclopedia - encyclopedia". Retrieved July 7, 2019.
  30. ↑ Wikipedia:Cambio de nombre de la Wikipedia en español, page of the "Wikipedia Museum".

See also

Wikimedia Commons logo
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wikipedia.

Wikimedia Atlas of Wikipedia

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